December 29: Neil's Mission Part III

Continued from December 28, 2010
Chapter 3 of 3

The night transformed into the early moments of morning. Neil's once dark hiding spot was now illuminated in the sun's warm glow. Too excited to sleep during the late hours, his lack thereof had caught up to him. He was just about to let the blanket of exhaustion encompass him when the faint sound of jingling keys followed by the soft, yet high-pitched, bell on the door threw it off of him. The store was open.

Mr. Shipley propped the door open with the copper bucket holding the umbrellas and let the warm air in to start the day. Neil watched him as he made his way behind the counter, bent down out of sight to open the safe, and reappeared with the drawer of money. From his corner by the door's frame, he watched Mr. Shipley recount the drawer, yawn, stretch, lose his count, and start over before placing it into the register. Before the store's owner had finished with his daily routine, Shipley's Family Hardware had its first visitor and so began the observation period of Neil's escape.

Throughout the day, he remained in his spot of hiding and took note of every visitor's walking pattern. He noticed that only the children stepped on the threshold and every adult landed his or her last step approximately six inches from its raised surface before exiting into the daylight. He was amazed to discover that when a customer paid for his or her items with the right hand, it was the right foot that made this last step and vice versa if the person paid using the left hand. By mid-afternoon, Neil had all he needed to achieve his goal.

When the silver pickup came to a stop in the dirt lot, Neil watched the overweight man slide out and slam the door with his right arm. He felt the ground tremble as the man stepped onto the first step with his right foot. He looked up as the man walked in, waved to Mr. Shipley with his right hand, and made his way to the framing hammers before testing their weight in his hand; the right.

Repeating the process he used to get to his hiding spot, Neil swung his point away from the floor-to-ceiling window and rolled himself around. Within minutes, he was precisely at the estimated location of contact in front of the open door. He could feel the warm breeze of the outside world as he raised his point over his head and balanced upside down. Carefully, he swiveled himself around to gauge the progress of the overweight man that was now standing on the ceiling and handing money under the top of the upside-down counter.

As Neil verified the man was paying with his right hand, a movement on the counter caught his attention. Allowing himself to glance toward the upside-down cardboard miscellaneous bin, Neil saw a familiar aluminum and heartbreaking face. He had not expected this last moment and his heart swelled with pain by the idea of goodbye but the feeling of triumph overshadowed and he waved his point proudly at his brother just before the overweight man's left foot landed directly beside him. As the man swung his right foot to land just before the threshold of the store, his shoe's toe made perfectly calculated contact with Neil's slender and weightless body.

The spinning world that Neil was introduced to the previous evening was nothing compared to this revolving feeling. Head over point over head over point he flew through the store's door and into the afternoon. He soared through the air for what seemed like eternity before finally landing with a soft thud in the hot powdery dirt. No crashing or banging like the night before; just one painless flop as the ground absorbed everything before sending a tiny cloud of dust around his body.

It was in this very spot that Neil remained until he heard the jingling keys from the morning. It was here that he watched a tired Mr. Shipley slowly descend the steps of Shipley's Family Hardware and climb into the dusty station wagon before its taillights made their way over the horizon and toward Mrs. Shipley's home-cooked beef stew.

The dust, dirt, rocks, and sticks made his travel a bit more difficult than the night before, but a few hours later he was there. He had made it. The journey was over. After all of his planning and after his hours of watching the habits of people in the store. After the months of having his family taken from him by careless people, Neil was on the precipice of revenge.

He watched as one last car flew by a mere few inches from where he waited before rolling himself on to the dark asphalt and over the white, reflective paint. The road was vacant and quiet as he positioned himself on the still-warm road, raised his point over his head, and waited.